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Dark Horse Announces Man-Machine Interface, trade collection

Nov 29th 2004

Peter Bagge skewers the end of the world
in Apocalypse Nerd

Imagine yourself in a post-apocalyptic world, where all the creature comforts that you've spent an entire lifetime taking for granted were suddenly gone for good. How do you see yourself reacting to such a situation? Would you “suck it up” and be stoically content? Or would you spend most of the time cursing your fate? We all like to picture ourselves as the former, though the latter is probably a more accurate portrayal—and that's exactly what our “hero” is like in Peter Bagge's new miniseries.

MARVEL as our protagonist, an asthma ridden, myopic former middle manager for a software company, has his limited survival skills continually put to the test, only to continually come up short! THRILL as his dumb childhood friend Jeff Beasley bullies him around, as he abuses his newfound status as the undisputed alpha male of the two! CRINGE as what's left of human civilization continually deteriorates around them, and they along with it!

“Apocalypse Nerd is an attempt to make light of my own worst fears, as in how I'd react in the wake of a nuclear holocaust,” commented creator Peter Bagge. “I don't think the comic is TOO accurate in that regard, since I doubt I'd survive for more than a day, but that wouldn't make for a very interesting story, would it?”

Each issue will also feature a backup story detailing poignant yet humorous anecdotes about America's Founding Fathers. Finally, George Washington and his gang will be starring in comics of their own!

Apocalypse Nerd is a six-issue quarterly series that begins in January with a retail price of $2.99. Edited by Dave Land.

http://darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-275

Busiek and Nord's Conan collected in Conan Volume 1:
The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories

Direct market exclusive Conan hardcover collection!

When the internationally famous barbarian hero returned to comics, with an all-new fresh start by award-winning writer Kurt Busiek (JLA/Avengers, Astro City) and dynamic artists Cary Nord, Thomas Yeates, and Dave Stewart, the result was instant sell-outs and multiple printings to keep up with the demand. Now Conan's earliest adventures are collected in a handsome 176-page collection. Catch all the action and savagery as he wars with the murderous Vanir, meets the Frost Giant's Daughter, and is taken as a slave by the ancient sorcerers of Hyperborea! This top-selling new series faithfully expands on original author Robert E. Howard's literary creation. Collecting issues #1-6 and fourteen pages from issue #7 of the ongoing series.

Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories hardcover collection arrives in stores March 30, with a retail price of $24.95. This hardcover collection will be printed only to initial orders in the direct market. Edited by Scott Allie.

http://darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-649

Conan's reach is growing!

The Dark Horse launch of Conan comics has been comics' greatest success story of 2004. The visibility of this top selling, critically acclaimed series will continue to grow in March, when the second wave of McFarlane Toys' Conan action figures reaches stores. In each action figure's package is an insert featuring the cover art from the upcoming Conan graphic novel, The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories. This insert has the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of new Conan fans!

Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of The Escapist #5
The blue-suited Escapist is back in the limelight!

Howard Chaykin (American Flagg) and David Hahn (Bite Club, Private Beach) team up for “Siren Song,” wherein a mesmerizing saxophone player forces her listeners to commit dastardly deeds! Writer Kevin McCarthy and artist Shawn Martinbrough (Detective) present “The Death of the Escapist,” with our favorite hero caught by a totalitarian despot. The dictator will crush his citizens' aspirations for freedom—starting with the Escapist! Jason Hall, of Creeper and Pistolwhip fame, writes the polemic “The Final Curtain”— featuring the return of artist Eric Wight, winner of the 2004 Russ Manning Award! Also in this issue, the Master of Elusion takes on the Physician of Illusion—Doc Hypnosis!—in a story written and drawn by Paul Grist (Kane, Jack Staff), and veteran comics scribe Roy Thomas returns with more Escapist lore of the 1960s. Last but not least, a very special story written and drawn by alternative comics wunderkind, Jeffrey Brown (Clumsy, Unlikely)!

Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of The Escapist #5 arrives January 12, with a retail price of $8.95. Edited by Diana Schutz.

http://darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-231

Hellboy team secrets are revealed in
B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs collection!

After holding it a secret for ten years, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola finally reveals Abe Sapien's bizarre history. Introduced in the first Hellboy book and featured prominently in the film, Abe Sapien has remained one of the most intriguing mysteries of Mignola's celebrated work.

The recent Hellboy film steered clear of any origin story for Abe so that the tale could be told in Plague of Frogs. The story of Abe's origins unfolds as the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense try to stop the monstrous frog men from the first Hellboy graphic novel, Seed of Destruction. The plague begins its spread across America, lending an apocalyptic new direction to Mignola's stories.

Collecting the five-issue miniseries, B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs features the talents of Mike Mignola, Guy Davis, and Dave Stewart. It arrives on sale January 26, with a retail price of $17.95. Edited by Scott Allie.

March 6, 2035. Motoko Aramaki is a hyper-advanced cyborg, a counter-terrorist net security expert heading the investigative department of the giant multi-national, Poseidon Industrial. Partly transcending the physical world and existing in a virtual world of networks, Motoko is a fusion of multiple entities and identities, deploying remotely controlled prosthetic humanoid surrogates around the globe to solve a series of bizarre crimes. Meanwhile, Tamaki Tamai, a psychic investigator from the Channeling Agency, has been commissioned to investigate strange changes in the temporal universe, brought about by two forces, one represented by the teachings of a professor named Rahampol, and the other by the complex, evolving Motoko entity. What unfolds will be all in a day's work...a day that will change everything, forever. Edited by Chris Warner.

Ghost In The Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface by Shirow Masamune arrives on sale January 19 with a retail price of $24.95.

1-59307-204-X

http://darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-288

Video gamers find an incredible secret in The Incredibles comic!

Eagle-eyed video gamers have noticed that in amongst all that tiny legal writing in the inside front cover of The Incredibles #1 a super secret cheat code has been hidden! Grab a copy of issue #1, plug the code into your system, and gain access to some super fun cheats for one of the coolest video games of the year!

Dark Horse Products

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Famous scientists around the world have mysteriously disappeared, and Gotham City Chronicle reporter Polly Perkins and ace aviator Sky Captain are investigating. With the help of squadron commander Franky they travel the world risking their lives to stop Dr. Totenkopf, the evil mastermind behind a plot to destroy the Earth.

A modern interpretation of classic sci-fi, Paramount Pictures' film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow combines CGI technology, 1940s design elements reminiscent of Metropolis, well-known actors (Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie), and the brooding, shadowy noir atmosphere of paranoid '50s robot films, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet.

In celebration of such truly inspired filmmaking, we have designed two ornaments based on props from the movie: the bird-like plane of the bad guys and the ingenious ray gun created by the film's sidekick inventor.

Gama-Go And Scary Girl Wrist Bands
The call for wrist bands has been heard!

We've got Gama-Go and Scary Girl wrist bands for the masses! The world of Gama-Go is expanding, with T-shirts, bags, stationery sets, and journals… Gama-Go is everywhere! The ultimate fashion statement and sports accessory, wrist bands go with any outfit. For Gama-Go we've chosen a scary Deathbot image and a cute 'lil Ninja Kitty image. One for each wrist!

We were on a roll when we chose Gama-Go, so we recruited one of our favorite people, Nathan Jurevicius, the creator of Scary Girl, to design two more wrist bands for us. The first one is, of course, the star of the show, Scary Girl herself. The second image is Scary Girl's companion, Toy Cat.

Arriving in January with a retail price of $4.95 each, the wristbands are as follows:

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The spicy boy-meet-girl-monsters manga comedy Monster Musume has been a hit since it slithered sexily from the mind of artist OKAYADO. You could call it a harem manga, but you've never seen a harem like this one. It starts with a bird-girl, a snake-girl and a horse-girl, and then it gets really strange. All these ladies are flying, clopping and otherwise perambulating to Japan as part of a govern...